prophetik music

of course i read them, man. you're so busy trying to sound like you know what you're talking about that you're missing the original point - that, while it can't run the newest, most graphically demanding game on the market right now, budget cards like the 8400GS have an important niche in the market. did kevin buy the right card for his setup? nope. does that make the 8400GS a terrible card? nope. they're great for people who want to give their IGP motherboards the ability to play some basic games without spending more than, like 40$. what kevin should have done is go review Tom's Hardware. they write an article every other month or so and rate what's the best gaming cards for 50, 70, 90, 125, and etc. he probably just didn't know about it yet. if you're still offended that i called you a dumb 14-year-old with no practical experience in the field of computer hardware a few months ago, you're not doing anything to change my mind =)

you don't have to run games on max to enjoy them? i'm talking about games, in general. buying an 8400 wasn't a good idea for that game, but it's a capable card that does a lot. there's a common misconception that a graphics card is required to do anything at all with a computer. actually, gfx cards are ONLY for gaming and the like. so, even the most basic card is a huge increase over integrated graphics, and makes a big difference in performance. the 8400 isn't the even the most basic card available. dhsu, it really does. a game with a huge draw distance, like a Fallout 3/Far Cry 2 style game, will always struggle with something like that. a game with a limited amount of visual requirements, like Alien Swarm, wouldn't have too much of a problem with higher settings.

actually, an 8400 is totally capable for older games. my old laptop had the rough equivalent of a 6600 in it, and i was able to almost max Freelancer on it, at 1440x900. don't just automatically rule it out because it's a few years old, or a budget card. a GTS 240 can destroy an 8800 =) and a 7950GX2 can annihilate it. and an 8400GS with a decent processor (like the i3-530) is way better than an 8800 with a last-gen pentium dual-core or early core 2. dhsu and bardic, i think you're speaking two different languages. resolution is more closely tied to vram than it is to anything else - meaning that the difference between a card that can drive a 1920x1200 monitor and a 1440x900 monitor is usually 512mb of vram, not necessarily processing power. that said, a GTS 250 would kill anything and make up for a crappy processor on that setup, and they're relatively cheap. a 260 would perform VERY well, as well - as much because of the extra mbs of ram as anything else. kevin, that card's not that great mainly because PCI is on the same bus that handles everything else (like USB) on your computer. PCI is already limited to a 133mb/s transfer rate, so your tubes are likely just clogged =) return the card and get a radeon 4650 (55$ or so), buy a new motherboard, probably buy a new processor, maybe some new ram. likely a bigger power supply. actually, why don't you tell me what computer you've got and i'll tell you what to buy. or you can give me moneys and i'll do it for you. man, i leave town for two days, and the world explodes. haven't seen this much news in months on this thread. that said, drumultima is ordering a system from me =) yay! he'll get a quote sometime in the next 12 hours or so, when i'm back home and not on a phone.

since GI's technically the biggest-selling game mag in the states, it often gets exclusives that are still exclusive when they go to print. like, the 9-page H:Reach premiere, or the big Rage article last year, or the 8-page spread on GoW3. i know it's cool to hate on print nowadays online, but i still think that there's something to sitting there with a physical copy of something in your hands, reading stuff about games. while you poop.

honestly, that's when i read most of my magazine subscriptions

i haven't started mine yet. last year's submission took six hours total to complete. considering i'm scoring two games and a 30-minute film right now, and just moved, i think i've got a good reason for doing little on the personal music front

GI's way better than, say, Xbox 360 magazine, PC Gamer, or Playstation magazine. that's not saying much, granted, but it's a good read. i enjoy my issues. besides, it's 5 dollars for twelve issues. is that really a big deal?

link expires august 15th. just use an address you don't mind getting spammed a bit. it takes two months for them to get it to you (mag after next), but it's still a great magazine for cheap. too bad i missed the GoW3 one already =(

d-d-d-dramarama well said, rama. everyone else needs to shut up and remix another song if they've still got time.

great wip from redshojin yesterday. we're really progressing nicely, people!

this looks pretty awesome.

sounds like either you knocked your system and one of the sticks came unseated, or one of your sticks is dead. games don't break hardware. either you did, or it died on its own.

if not, give me a call =)

=) not quite what i want, in the end, but it'll work for the next two years. i'm hoping for something similar to what stevo's got, where his workstation's in the corner, and he's got a big-screen with all his gadgets hooked up to it with a sectional couch for reclining. but that's in the future =)

let's see if this works. clockwise, starting from the amp. Fender bxr-150 100w amp (150$ on craigslist) Kay mandolin, circa 1975 (200$ on craigslist) Washburn 12-string (two crappy mics, a 6-channel mixer, and 50$ on craigslist) ESP LTD B-416 6-string bass (125$ on craigslist) Ibanez EW20ZWE acoustic (wife bought it for me as a wedding gift) Squier 4-string acoustic bass (75$ on craigslist) the recliner was 25$, from a roomie who was moving out in college. got the drum for christmas, has a nice clear tone to it even though it's small. also, the big open space between the bookshelves (where the flashlight and trumpet are now) now holds posters for ODST and Red Faction: Guerrilla. the bookshelves hold authors such as Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Jack McDevitt, and Tom Clancy. this is just to the side of that picture. i nabbed the TV from our landlords, who left it there. you can see my N64, Genesis (1601, got it and five games for 35$ on craigslist), and SNES (another craigslist nab, 30 games and two controllers for 50$). the speakers on the lower left are hooked up now. in the bin to the right of the cabinet is another N64, two GameCubes, a PlayStation One, and a lone NES gun (i don't own an NES, dunno where i got it from). the tall storage to the right of the concrete post is my computer building supplies. all the way on the right, behind my head, is my 1UP mushroom i got at MAGFest 7. the mothership itself. you can tell where this relative to the last two pictures by the shelf in the lower right. three monitors - 17" square for email, 28" primary, 22" secondary on a monitor arm (going clockwise from me). Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 audio interface under the 17". between that and the 28" is my headphones - a Sennheiser HD280 Pro (closed ear) and an Alessandro Labs Grado Music Series Two (open ear). i use a Logitech G15 keyboard and Revolution MX mouse. the speakers are NHT M-00 studio monitors (sub is forthcoming, hopefully in september), and there's an M-Audio Axiom 49 on the stand there. the computer under the desk itself is encased in a Zalman GS-1000 case, and consists of an i7-860 2.8ghz quad core clocked up to 3.5ghz (on air!), hand-lapped Cooler Master Hyper 212 heatsink, eVGA GTX 260 core 216 gfx card, G.SKILL 2x2gb DDR3 1600 ram, total of 3.8tb of internal HD space (there's a 1tb external between the saffire pro 40 and the shelf up to), eVGA P55 SLI motherboard, LG DVD-RW drive, and a Seasonic X750 750w power supply. oh, and i put a bunch of posters up to cover up the painted-on crap our landlords did - a big one of P.O.D., medium one of FF:Dissidia, and one of Mass Effect 2. don't have a picture of the AV area upstairs, but it's got a 47" 1080p HDTV, with a set of Logitech Z5500 5.1 speakers. I've got my PS3 (CECHE model), X360 Slim, X360 jasper (250gb HD, banned and flashed with iXtreme 1.61), and the usual CD changer, radio, VCR, and iPod cable all rigged into the sound system. welp, there's my office area/man cave. whatcha think?

this is good. my move was way worse than i expected it to be, so i have little done on mine.

ba-da-bump. still available, people.

hah =) i've done it on three systems, which is why i know it works. a clean install on a system that's never had w7 works perfectly. in fact, any upgrade from xp requires you to do a clean install from boot, and any upgrade from vista to w7 where the versions are different (ie, home vs pro vs ultimate) requires a clean install from boot. as i said before, it's just like the upgrade discs for the latest version of OSX, if i remember correctly. that was the joke about it.

wham, ban, thank you for sending in your wip, Lashmush person! another wip!

does anyone have a sega genesis 1601 (first model, with the volume knob on the front) AV cord? i need something cheap. at some point.